How to Read a Horse Racing Racecard: Form Figures, Ratings and the Going

The first time you open a racecard, it looks like someone spilled a spreadsheet. Strings of numbers, stray letters, brackets, slashes, and a "b1" next to a horse you've never heard of. Give it ten minutes, though. Once you know how to read a horse racing racecard, that jumble becomes the best free form guide in sport.

Every line tells you where a horse has been, how it's been running and what its trainer is trying today. You just need the shorthand.

There's no better time to pick it up. The Flat turf season is into its autumn run-in, with the all-weather winter programme to follow, and the jumps season is getting going as the ground softens. Same card, two very different games. We'll walk through it in the order you'll actually read it, try it out on a mock racecard, and finish with the checklist we run through before backing anything.

A Racing Post-style card gives each runner its own block of information, and the order barely changes from one race to the next:

• Silks and numbers. The owner's colours come first, then the saddle cloth number. "R" marks a reserve and "NR" a non-runner. On the Flat, the stall number (the draw) usually sits in brackets after the cloth number.
• The horse. Colour, sex, name and country of breeding if it was bred outside Britain, then its sire and dam, in that order.
• Fitness and age. Days since its last run, with a letter in brackets if it has run more recently in a different code (F for Flat, say), then its age.
• Weight, ratings and form. The weight carried in stone and pounds (11-10 is 11st 10lb, penalty included), the form figures, course and distance symbols, then the ratings: Topspeed (TS), the Racing Post Rating (RPR) and the official rating (OR).
• The team. The jockey (with any claim in brackets), owner and trainer, plus the trainer's recent-form percentage, headgear, wind-operation markers and the betting with its price history.

The shorthand for colour and sex

Colours are cut to a letter or two: b for bay, bl black, br brown, ch chestnut, gr grey and ro roan. Sex follows the same idea, with c for colt, f filly, g gelding, h horse, m mare and r rig. So "ch g" is a chestnut gelding and "b f" a bay filly.

Keep an eye out for "g1". It means the horse is having its first run since being gelded, and that's always worth a second look.

Form figures are the heart of the card. Read them left to right, with the oldest run on the left and the latest on the right. The numbers 1 to 9 are finishing positions, and a 0 means the horse finished 10th or worse.

Two bits of punctuation do a lot of work. A hyphen separates seasons, so everything to the left of it happened last season. A slash marks a longer break, such as a whole season missed.

Try "2-31124". The horse finished second on its final run last season. This season it was third, then won twice on the bounce, ran second and was fourth last time out. That's a horse in form, even if the latest run was a small step back.

The letters

Over jumps, letters replace numbers when a race didn't go to plan. Flat form is usually all numbers.

Letter	Meaning
F	Fell
P or PU	Pulled up
U or UR	Unseated rider
B or BD	Brought down
R	Refused
C	Carried out
O	Ran out
S	Slipped up
D	Disqualified
V	Void race

Don't hold a brought-down or carried-out against a horse; neither is its fault. A string of refusals or pulled-ups is another story.

Course, distance and other symbols

Beside the form sit the race-history symbols. C means the horse has won at this course, D that it has won over today's trip, and CD that it has done both. BF flags a beaten favourite last time out: the market fancied it and it let backers down.

A few smaller markers are worth learning too. W1 or W2 means a first or second run since wind surgery, and a 1 or 2 beside the trainer's name means a first or second race for a new yard. On a Racing Post card, all-weather and point-to-point form figures appear in bold, so those runs stand out from the rest of the line.

The British Horseracing Authority gives every horse an official rating (OR), and the handicapper keeps reassessing it, moving it up or down as the horse runs. In a handicap, that rating sets the weight, and the rule is simple: one ratings point equals one pound. A horse rated 100 carries 5lb more than one rated 95.

That's the whole point of a handicap: on paper, every runner gets an equal chance. A horse that wins after the weights are published picks up a penalty, which is why some carry more than their rating suggests. A maiden typically earns a rating by winning or after three runs, and that opens the door to handicaps.

The other two ratings come from the Racing Post. RPR is compiled by its own private handicapper and adjusted for today's weights, while Topspeed is its speed figure. When OR and RPR tell very different stories, find out why. That gap is often where the interesting bets live.

Jockey claims

A number in brackets after a jockey's name is a claim. It's a weight allowance for a less experienced rider, knocked off what the horse carries when that rider takes on full professionals. Under the BHA's scale, a Flat apprentice claims 7lb until riding 20 winners, 5lb until 50 and 3lb until 95. Conditional riders over jumps lose their allowance faster: 7lb until 20 winners, 5lb until 40 and 3lb until 75.

Plenty of punters love a good young claimer on a well-handicapped horse, and so do we. In races restricted to apprentices there's no claim at all, since everyone's on the same terms.

Trainer form

RTF% shows the percentage of a trainer's runners that have run to form in the past 16 days. A yard in red-hot form won't shout about it on the card, but it's a useful nudge. Our guide to jockey and trainer statistics shows how to get more out of those numbers.

Races are graded by class, from Class 1 at the top down to Class 7 on the Flat and Class 6 over jumps. Class 1 covers the pattern races (Group 1, 2 and 3 on the Flat; Grade 1, 2 and 3 over jumps) plus Listed races. Right at the summit sit the five Classics (the 1,000 Guineas, 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Oaks and St Leger) and championship events such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Down at Class 6 over jumps you'll find bumpers and hunter chases.

Below the top level, handicaps are usually open only to horses rated within a band. A horse dropping in class can meet weaker rivals; one stepping up faces a stiffer test. Group and Listed races aren't handicaps at all. Weights there are set by age and sex, with fillies and mares getting a small allowance against colts and geldings.

The race types you'll meet

• Maiden: for horses that have never won, mostly two-year-olds on the Flat.
• Nursery: a handicap for two-year-olds.
• Claiming and selling races: in a claimer, any runner can be bought after the race at a price tied to the weight it carried; in a seller, the winner goes to auction.
• Auction races: maidens and novice events for horses bought under a price cap.
• Apprentice, amateur and conditional races: restricted to those riders.
• National Hunt Flat (NHF): the bumper, a jumps-code race run without obstacles.

Headgear codes

Headgear shows up as a small letter. Add a 1 or 2 (b1, p1, t1, v2) and it means the horse is wearing it for the first or second time. First-time headgear means the trainer is trying something new, and we always want to know what.

Code	Item	What it does
b	Blinkers	Cups around the eyes limit vision to help concentration
v	Visor	Blinkers with a slit in each cup, allowing some sideways sight
p	Cheekpieces	Sheepskin strips that partly block rear vision, a gentler option
h	Hood	Covers the ears to muffle noise
t	Tongue-tie	Secures the tongue to help breathing

One trap catches everyone: cheekpieces are "p", the only code that doesn't match its name. "Ht" means a hood and tongue-tie together, while e/s and e/c mark an eyeshield and an eyecover.

The draw (Flat only)

The draw is the stall a horse starts from, picked at random by Weatherbys when runners are declared. Stalls are used in almost every Flat race in Britain. Jumps races have no draw at all.

It bites hardest on tight, turning tracks and in big-field sprints where one part of the course rides quicker than another. Chester is the classic case, its tight turns long thought to favour low draws, and Beverley is another track where low numbers are traditionally preferred. The bookmakers know all this too. Historically, backing every runner drawn 1 to 4 at Chester blind would still have lost money at starting price. Use the draw to sharpen an opinion, not as a system.

The going is the state of the turf, and it can turn a race upside down. The official British scale runs from hard through firm, good to firm, good, good to soft and soft to heavy. Hard exists on paper, but in practice racing is abandoned on welfare grounds before it gets that far. You'll also see mixed descriptions such as "soft, heavy in places", and in Ireland "yielding" stands in for what Britain calls good to soft.

All-weather tracks have their own scale: fast, standard to fast, standard, standard to slow and slow.

Courses aim for good ground over jumps and good to firm on the Flat, and they can water to soften it. Jumpers cope with far wetter conditions than Flat horses, which is why Flat meetings get called off sooner after heavy rain.

Who decides, and when it changes

The going is first published with the entries five days before a race and updated again at declarations, 48 hours out. On raceday the clerk of the course walks the track early, from around 6am, and issues the official description, and it can still change race by race as riders report back.

Every British clerk is also required to take GoingStick readings. The stick reads on a scale of 0 (wettest) to 15 (firmest), averaging three readings at each of 30 spots around the track. Treat it as a companion to the clerk's description, not a replacement.

How going affects horses

Horses have preferences, just like the rest of us. Some love it soft and testing; others need a quick surface to show their speed. Racing folk say a horse "acts on the going" when it handles the conditions. Check every runner's form on today's ground. On a wet day, a win on soft or heavy tells you far more than a win on good to firm. If a horse has never tried the conditions, its sire's record gives you a decent clue.

Time to put it together. Here's a made-up Flat handicap to practise on; the horses, jockeys and trainers are all invented.

No (Draw)	Form	Horse	Age	Wt	OR	Gear	Jockey	Days
1 (4)	1114-21	Example Lad CD	4	10-0	88	t	P Jockey	14
3 (7)	2-1312	Mock Runner	5	9-10	84	b1	J Smith (3)	21
5 (2)	5604-3	Pretend Prince BF	6	9-5	79	p	A Rider	35
8 (1)	12/3	Sample Star D	4	9-2	76	h	T Rider	98

Reading Mock Runner's line

Mock Runner wears number 3 and breaks from stall 7. He was second on his final run last season, then this season went 1st, 3rd, 1st and 2nd. He's a five-year-old carrying 9st 10lb off an official rating of 84. He wears blinkers for the first time, his jockey claims 3lb, and he last ran 21 days ago.

What the card is telling you

The weights follow the ratings. Example Lad is rated four pounds higher than Mock Runner and carries four pounds more. Mock Runner's 3lb claim brings him down to 9st 7lb, so on the day the gap to the top weight stretches to seven pounds.

Example Lad is an in-form course-and-distance winner, but he's lumping top weight. Pretend Prince was a beaten favourite last time. Sample Star missed a whole season, has been off for 98 days and has only a distance win in her favour. On the bare card, we'd want to know a lot more about her before backing her ahead of the two in-form runners at the top.

The betting forecast and price history sit on the card too, usually as fractions in racing. Converting fractional odds to decimal takes seconds, and the implied probability tells you how likely the price says a horse is to win. These figures are illustrative.

Fractional 5/2 -> decimal = 5/2 + 1 = 3.5
Return on a £10 stake = £10 x 3.5 = £35 (£25 profit + £10 stake)
Implied probability = 1 / 3.5 = 0.286 = 28.6%

If your reading of the card says the horse's chance is better than 28.6%, the price could be worth taking. If not, leave it alone.

You don't have to stick to win singles. Each-way betting suits big-field handicaps, where a well-handicapped outsider can run into a place, and our each-way betting guide explains how the place terms work.

If you think two runners will dominate, a forecast lets you back them to finish first and second, and the forecast and tricast guide covers the options.

Big jumps handicaps read exactly the same way. Sit down with a Grand National card and the ratings, weights, claims and letters in the form all mean what they mean here. There are just a lot more of them.

• Start with the ground. If a horse has never shown its form on today's going, that's the first question it has to answer.
• Read the latest runs hardest. The figures on the right matter most, and a hyphen or slash tells you how fresh that form really is.
• Check fitness flags. A long gap since the last run, a W1 marker or a first run for a new trainer all change the picture.
• Respect C, D and CD. Proven course and distance form is one of the cleanest positives on the card.
• Follow the class and the weight. A horse dropping in class, or running off a lower mark than when it last won, can be well treated.
• Note headgear changes. A "1" after the letter means the trainer is trying something new, so ask what they're trying to fix.
• Use the draw on the Flat. Over sprint trips and on tight tracks, stall position can shape a race before the gates open.

A racecard gives you more information, not certainty, and horse races have a habit of ignoring the paperwork. Set your stakes before racing starts and stick to them, whatever the card is shouting at you.

• Jockey and trainer statistics: finding your horse racing betting edge
• Each-way betting explained
• Reverse forecast betting explained
• Grand National 2026 betting guide
• Betting odds explained: fractional, decimal and American

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